TORONTO — Larry Tanenbaum has by no means lacked for imaginative and prescient. Or persistence. Or the desire to see issues by way of.
He started pursuing skilled sports activities franchises to carry to Toronto within the mid-Nineteen Seventies. Six many years later he’s nonetheless at it, nonetheless constructing a legacy with untold dividends.
It’s why he’s change into some of the profitable businessmen in Canada, and in Canadian skilled sports activities, the singular driving drive that has helped elevate what was a sleepy city primarily outlined by a poorly run and half-baked NHL staff to a sports activities market that matches the varied and pulsing metropolis Toronto has change into.
That’s one lens by way of which to view the information Friday morning that his latest funding automobile, Kilmer Sports activities Ventures, can be awarded a WNBA franchise that may start play in Toronto in 2026.
The I’s and T’s have but to be dotted and crossed, however a number of sources have confirmed that the deal is all however performed.
Formally, it’s not official:
“We proceed to have interaction in productive conversations with possession teams in a lot of markets and the granting of any enlargement groups requires a vote of the WNBA and NBA Board of Governors,” per a WNBA spokesperson.
And, from Kilmer Sports activities Ventures: “We’ve no remark at the moment.”
However given Tanenbaum’s stature because the chairman of the NBA board of governors and the potential of Toronto as a market, the WNBA increasing to Toronto has been principally a performed deal since he expressed curiosity in getting a staff.
“Nobody goes to say no to Larry,” mentioned one NBA supply.
However official non-denials apart, one other lens to view the arrival of the WNBA in Toronto is by how inevitable it has all appeared even earlier than Tanenbaum started his pursuit. That speaks to the outstanding development of the league and girls’s skilled sports activities generally over the previous decade or extra, and Toronto and Canada’s development as a basketball market.
In distinction to when Toronto was awarded an NBA franchise in 1993, again when there have been some actual query marks round how a brand new staff and a brand new sport would reach a brand new metropolis and a brand new nation, the prospect of the WNBA coming to Toronto has been greeted with equal measures of pleasure and ‘what took so lengthy?’
The concept that it won’t succeed will not be a part of the story. As a substitute, success is assumed, and the long-term impression of that success is a part of the thrill.
“All I can say is I noticed [the news] and I used to be like, ‘What a time. What a time for basketball in our total nation and for a WNBA staff to be coming to Toronto and to be coming to Canada,” says Canadian ladies’s staff captain Natalie Achonwa, a nine-year WNBA veteran. “I didn’t suppose it could occur so quickly, however what an exquisite shock. For Larry and his group to make that funding and that dedication to persevering with to develop the sport in our nation is wonderful.
“And I can’t look ahead to the little ladies and little boys at house to have the ability to develop up and see this league firsthand. Rising up I solely knew that boys performed basketball. I grew up watching the Raptors. And for teenagers to have the ability to be in an area firsthand, to see little ladies and little boys to see what robust, passionate, aggressive ladies appear to be firsthand goes to be wonderful for the subsequent technology.”
Credit score to Tanenbaum for seeing it by way of. As has been extensively reported, the opportunity of bringing a WNBA staff to Toronto was offered to the board of Maple Leaf Sports activities and Leisure at a gathering in 2023. It was one thing that Tanenbaum wished to pursue and there was further assist from different members of the MLSE board, however the thought ultimately was rejected. Tanenbaum felt strongly sufficient in regards to the potential of the challenge that he requested the MLSE board if there can be any objection to him pursuing a franchise on his personal. He then started the method independently of MLSE, which is collectively owned by BCE and Rogers Communications (guardian firm of Sportsnet), who share 75 per cent of the enterprise, with 20 per cent belonging to Tanenbaum and a further 5 per cent oblique shares owned by OMERS, a Canadian pension fund, after a $400 million cope with Tanenbaum final summer season.
This information marks the primary stage for what guarantees to be an intriguing interval for the Toronto sports activities business, because the WNBA can be Tanenbaum’s first flag within the floor for his new sports activities enterprise, one which guarantees to be dynamic and lively simply because the MLSE chairman is predicted to be purchased out by his fellow homeowners in July of 2026.
Given Tanenbaum’s monitor document, the expectation is that his WNBA staff can be well-funded, well-run and have each alternative to be an instantaneous hit.
“There’s no query in my thoughts this can succeed,” says Achonwa, who has lengthy been a part of the WNBA gamers’ union. “I noticed how the sport in Toronto went [an exhibition game between the Minnesota Lynx and the Chicago Sky at Scotiabank Arena last May that sold out in minutes] and the way the sport in Edmonton went [another sold-out exhibition game last Saturday] … and I don’t have a doubt in my thoughts that these which are invested and dedicated to basketball in Canada will guarantee that that is performed proper.”
Tanenbaum’s profitable pursuit of a WNBA staff was first reported by Shireen Ahmed at CBC.ca and subsequently confirmed by Sportsnet. The small print, based on Ahmed, embrace:
• The formal announcement is predicted on Could 23.• The franchise will doubtless be headed by Teresa Resch, the Toronto Raptors’ former vp of basketball operations and participant growth.• The staff will play on the metropolis of Toronto-owned Coca-Cola Coliseum at Exhibition Place.
The endeavor will not be with out dangers and isn’t any small funding. A franchise in Toronto would carry the WNBA to 14 groups and comes on the heels of Golden State Warriors proprietor Joe Lacob bringing the thirteenth staff to the Bay Space in 2025. It was reported that the enlargement price for the Bay Space staff was $50 million. Presuming the price for a Toronto franchise is comparable, the start-up prices may run Tanenbaum near $100 million when all is claimed and performed, per business sources.
Recouping that funding can solely be a long-term play.
“Ladies’s forces (are) having a second. I’m unsure it’s THE second, however it’s positively a second,” mentioned one sports activities business government with WNBA and NBA expertise. “But it surely’s a really, very laborious enterprise and it may be very laborious to promote tickets to it, and once you do promote them it’s not for $300 like at an NBA recreation, you’re filling the constructing with $50 seats. Doing that exterior MLSE can be a grind, so, you realize, we’ll see.”
However Tanenbaum has the monetary wherewithal to handle any short-term ache, and there’s loads of proof that the WNBA is on the verge of breaking out as a mainstream sport if it hasn’t already. From document viewership of WNBA video games on tv final season to the popular culture buzz generated by No. 1 total decide Caitlin Clark throughout her record-setting NCAA profession, the variety of eyes on the league has by no means been larger nor the thrill better.
It helps too that Canada’s presence within the WNBA and throughout ladies’s basketball usually has solely continued to develop. There are 4 Canadians within the league presently — Kia Nurse with the Los Angeles Sparks, Bridget Carleton with the Minnesota Lynx, Laeticia Amihere with the Atlanta Dream and Aaliyah Edwards with the Washington Mystics — and a wave of younger expertise inside the ladies’s nationwide staff program that might see that quantity double in years to return. There must also be alternatives for members of Canada’s rising ‘basketball business’ to seek out roles by way of the entrance workplace, medical workers, or teaching and administration, to not point out roles for a few of Canada’s WNBA pioneers.
“The dialog of getting WNBA alum being part of the entrance workplace has been enormous as a result of we all know the sport, we all know the league, we all know what is critical to maintain pushing the sport ahead, on and off the courtroom,” says Achonwa, who can be representing Canada on the Olympics for the fourth time this summer season, a document for any Canadian basketball participant and sure her final occasion with the nationwide staff. “And so integrating for gamers and entrance workplace positions is large. And having Canadians part of it could be even one thing extra particular, so… yeah, after all, I imply, throw my title within the pot, too. I’d like to be part of the workers or no matter it seems like.”
A hometown star can be crisp too:
“I imply, how particular wouldn’t it be to have a Canadian participant enjoying on the staff in Toronto?” says Achonwa. “I imply, you bought to suppose that they’re gonna need to pull no less than one hometown hero vibe on the staff.”
The chances are limitless and made attainable as a result of Larry Tanenbaum has as soon as once more seen the long run and willed it into existence.